Facebook's 'Home' is for friends, not apps

Updated 7:27 pm, Thursday, April 4, 2013

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones.

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, STF

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Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, displays a new phone with new Facebook interface at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says it is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, displays a new phone with new Facebook interface at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says it is not building a phone or an operating

Ralph De La Vega, CEO of AT&T mobility, displays a new phone with the new Facebook interface at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says its not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Ralph De La Vega, CEO of AT&T mobility, displays a new phone with the new Facebook interface at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says its not building a

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) less

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is ... more

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, STF

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is

An HTC First displays Mark Zuckerberg using the Facebook interface on Thursday in Menlo Park, Calif. The idea behind "Home" is to bring content right to the user, instead of making people check apps.

An HTC First displays Mark Zuckerberg using the Facebook interface on Thursday in Menlo Park, Calif. The idea behind "Home" is to bring content right to the user, instead of making people check apps.

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, STF

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Facebook's 'Home' is for friends, not apps

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MENLO PARK, Calif. - Facebook is cuddling up to Google by using Android in a modified version of the search engine's mobile operating system. But the social networking giant is also making a big bet with the changes: that smartphone users want their phones centered on friends and contacts - not on applications.

"We're going to talk about how you can turn your Android phone into a great social device," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in presenting the new product at the company's headquarters Thursday.

Facebook has built a new home screen for smartphones running the new operating system called, simply enough, Home. All of a user's Facebook notifications - taggings, mentions, pictures, etc. - are centered. Applications will be a second layer of functionality.

Facebook messenger - now called "Chat Heads" - will get a special place, with easy access from the home screen. When reading articles, "Chat Heads" lies on top of the content, allowing for quick chats with friends about what you're looking at.

A throwback, but flashy

Zuckerberg said the initial iteration of the Facebook-­Android hybrid will be sold on the HTC First cellphone, in conjunction with AT&T.

He claimed that Facebook users spend roughly 25 percent of their time on their phones on the social network and Instagram, and check Facebook 10 to 12 times a day. During the presentation, the standard home screen on a smartphone of apps arranged in columns and rows morphed into columns and rows of pictures of Facebook friends.

"What this enables is lighter communication that wouldn't be possible otherwise," Zuckerberg said.

For Facebook, the move is a gamble. Part of the reason smartphones have become so popular is that they aren't just phones, but computers. Putting contacts and communication with people back to the forefront in the place of apps and tools could be seen as something of a throwback to the way phones worked a decade ago, though flashier.

But it fits with Zuckerberg's stated vision that the world is not set in a culture of application-based computing.

He noted how many people across the globe still don't use computers and their digital habits have yet to take shape.

Zuckerberg's view is that those habits can be centered around social functionality rather than apps.

Room for advertisers

The HTC phone will have a sticker price of $99, a clear indication of a focus on market share, rather than making money on these early iterations. Google has employed a similar strategy with its Nexus devices.

Zuckerberg also mentioned how much room there is on the new device for content, a note that likely means "room for advertisers." Ads won't be present immediately, but will be in the future.

Technically speaking, the new device is not the much-discussed "Facebook phone" per se. Zuckerberg has been saying for years that phones were not Facebook's business, and so far, that's true. It's analogous to a version of the Chrome browser that makes Facebook the homepage and comes pre-installed with Facebook extensions, but you can still browse the Web as you like and download other extension­s.

That's the fight Face­book is quietly - but clearly - bringing to Google: Facebook is using Google's software but has made itself as the center­piece of the operating system, pushing services essential to Google's business, like search and Google Play, to the background.